World
Yankees vs. Dodgers: Get ready for an ‘epic’ World Series with so much to savor
LOS ANGELES — They play a World Series every year. But a World Series like this one comes around about as often as Halley’s Comet.
It’s Yankees versus Dodgers. It’s New York versus L.A. Yet somehow it’s even bigger than a duel between the biggest cities in America.
It’s star power. It’s history. And it will reverberate not merely from East Coast to West Coast but also all the way across the Pacific.
It all starts Friday night at Dodger Stadium. And as the manager of the Dodgers tried his best to grasp the grandeur of it Sunday night, the same word kept coming to mind.
“Epic.”
“I’m a baseball fan first,” said Dave Roberts, a man about to manage in his fourth World Series. “And when you’re talking about the two biggest media markets in the world, and you’re talking about the best and brightest stars in baseball on the same field, on the biggest of stages, what baseball fan, what sports fan, wouldn’t want to lock into this Series?
“So for the Dodgers franchise, for the Yankees franchise, for sports fans, I just think it’s what everyone wanted.”
But even if it is what everyone wanted, it doesn’t automatically make it “epic.” So what transforms it from unofficially cool to officially epic? Let’s look at the many answers to that question — because it’s as fun to contemplate as it will be to watch.
It’s the two best teams
Dave Roberts and Aaron Boone guided their teams to the best records in their respective leagues. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
Let’s start here. The Dodgers won the most games in the National League this season (98). The Yankees won the most games in the American League (94). So logically, it shouldn’t be a shock that they both will show up in the World Series. But what does logic have to do with postseason baseball?
October is a time for upsets, not coronations. And we’re not here to complain about that. We’re here to celebrate that. Playoffs weren’t created to propel the two best teams to the World Series. They were created for craziness and unpredictability. That’s the whole point. Don’t forget that, OK?
But once this sport started adding rounds, adding teams and adding challenges, the biggest casualty was these sorts of World Series — these battles of the titans.
They used to happen every few years. Now, if you don’t count the shortened, 60-game 2020 season, this is only the fourth time in the wild-card era (1995-present) that the World Series will be a meeting between the winningest teams in each league.
2013 — Red Sox (97 wins) vs. Cardinals (97)
1999 — Yankees (98 wins) vs. Braves (103)
1995 — Indians (100) vs. Braves (90)
Just for the record, in the pre-wild-card version of playoff baseball — from 1969 to 1993, when only two teams from each league advanced to the postseason — that was a much more common occurrence. The winningest teams in each league played each other in the World Series nine times in 25 seasons under that system — including the Yankees versus Dodgers in 1978.
But these days, in a postseason tournament that drops land mines in the path of the best teams for over a month, years like this feel like a special occasion. And when you add in the Yankees-Dodgers bonus points, you’ve got something that isn’t just special. It’s mammoth.
“Right now, I haven’t fully had time to process it,” said Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “But there’s a nostalgia around it. And honestly, it’s a classic Series that my baseball mind hasn’t fully been able to fathom.”
It’s the Kings of October
The Dodgers celebrate after beating the Yankees to win the 1981 World Series. (John Iacono / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Think about this. The World Series began in 1903. So this will be the 120th. And if you count this year, the Yankees and Dodgers will have combined to play in 63 of them.
Does that seem like a lot? Maybe it will if we put it this way: It’s as many as the Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies, Reds, Tigers, White Sox and Cleveland have played in put together.
And this will be the 12th time the Dodgers and Yankees have played each other in a World Series. To say that’s more than any other two teams doesn’t capture the magnitude of it. Here’s what does: It’s as many as the next two most common matchups combined.
Dodgers-Yankees — 12
Giants-Yankees — 7
Cardinals-Yankees — 5
So there’s a history that hovers over this World Series that is unlike any other. It’s a history that began with Joe DiMaggio and Pee Wee Reese, and black-and-white newsreel footage flickering across a screen down at the local movie theater. Now, here these teams are again, streaming on massive flat screens in your living room and mobile devices around the planet.
There was a time when the Dodgers and Yankees met in six World Series in 10 years — in 1947, ’49, ’52, ’53, ’55 and ’56. The Yankees were gracious enough to let the Dodgers win one of those.
Then, a couple of decades later, they were at it again, matching up three times in five years — in 1977, ’78 and ’81. But in the four decades since, they haven’t met once — until now. So how much fun is it that the 43-year intermission is over?
“I think for all of us, it’s America’s pastime,” Roberts said. “And like I said, it’s going to be a legendary Series. We haven’t played the Yankees since 1981. And you’re talking about right now, the two best teams in all of baseball are playing in the World Series. So what better way to be on the biggest stages?”
It’s the star-power World Series
The stars will be out in force in this World Series. (Kamil Krzaczynski / Imagn Images)
The biggest stars in last year’s World Series — a duel of wild-card teams (Texas and Arizona) — were, well, who exactly? Corey Seager and Corbin Carroll? Adolis García and Zac Gallen? Or should we just applaud the nine outs Max Scherzer got?
With all due respect to everyone who participated in the last World Series, it was perfectly acceptable to describe a few of those men as “stars.” But this year? We’re talking about megastars.
We’re talking about both likely MVPs — Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani — meeting up in the same World Series for the first time since 2012 (Miguel Cabrera and Buster Posey). And they’re not “just” MVPs. They’re towering figures in a sport that’s dying to strap itself to their star power.
But it doesn’t stop there. There’s a parade of stars lining up on the red carpet of this World Series that we would argue is unlike any cavalcade of stars in the history of the Series. You think we’re exaggerating? Nope.
Let’s talk MVPs. We’re about to watch five MVPs play in a World Series. You think that happens every year? Oh, no, it doesn’t. It has literally never happened before.
We asked the great Sam Hovland of STATS Perform to look into that for us. He proved our point. For the purpose of this chart, we’re going to assume that every one-time MVP on both rosters is going to play in this World Series, with the exception of injured Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. Now check this out.
MOST FORMER MVPs TO PLAY IN A WORLD SERIES*
2024 — 5 (Judge, Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Giancarlo Stanton)
1971 — 4 (Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Boog Powell)
1966 — 4 (Sandy Koufax, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Maury Wills)
1964 — 4 (Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, Dick Groat)
1963 — 4 (Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, Maury Wills)
1962 — 4 (Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, Willie Mays)
1955 — 4 (Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella)
1953 — 4 (Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella)
1940 — 4 (Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, Ernie Lombardi, Bucky Walters)
(*played in at least one game of World Series, must have won MVP in a previous season)
(Source: STATS Perform)
So even if only four of this year’s group played, it would still be the most in more than half a century. But there’s also this: At least one of these guys has won an MVP in every season since 2016 except one. The only year they missed? That would be 2019, when another Dodger, Cody Bellinger (now with the Cubs), won the NL MVP.
Let’s talk other awards. Ah, but we also have two former Cy Young Award winners on these teams — Kershaw and the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole. We have two former Rookies of the Year — Judge and Ohtani. And we have six Gold Glove Award winners — Betts, Kershaw, Tommy Edman, Kevin Kiermaier, Anthony Rizzo and Anthony Volpe.
And let’s talk jersey sales. Can we measure star power based on how many hard-earned dollars folks are willing to plunk down for a jersey with one of these dudes’ name and number on the back? Why the heck not? In fact, that might be the best way to measure that star-power factor.
So what does it tell us that the teams in this World Series employ three of the top four, four of the top seven and six of the top 20 players who sold the most MLB jerseys in 2024?
1. Ohtani
3. Judge
4. Betts
7. Soto
18. Freeman
19. Kershaw
You can draw your own conclusions. But here’s what it tells the Dodgers’ Max Muncy.
“I just think you’re talking about two of the classic franchises, and you’re talking about two teams that have the sport’s biggest stars,” Muncy said. “And I mean the biggest stars. We’re talking about, on our team, you’ve got Shohei, Freddie, Mookie. On their team, you’ve got Aaron Judge, Giancarlo and Soto.
“You’re talking about the actual biggest stars in the game. And now they’re going to be playing on the biggest stage. As a fan, how special is this, man? Unbelievable.”
Shohei Ohtani could cap his first Dodgers season with a title. (Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
We know that in middle America and elsewhere, there are people grumbling about the combined $627 million in payrolls that have brought these teams here. And if you’re a fan of the Royals, Pirates, Guardians or some other teams, we get why you might be turned off instead of fired up by this matchup.
But is it OK to mention that the Royals, Guardians and Tigers have all played in a World Series more recently than the Yankees? Or that four of the 10 teams that spent at least $200 million on their payroll this year didn’t even make the playoffs — and two more didn’t win a game once they got there?
So if you want to quibble about or boycott this World Series for whatever reason, hey, do what you need to do. But for the rest of us? This is one of those matchups you wait a lifetime for. So when they come along, we recommend savoring everything about them, from first pitch to last, from those black-and-white Ebbets Field highlights of yesteryear to the electrifying visions of wherever Ohtani is taking this sport in his imagination.
It’s Dodgers versus Yankees. It’s L.A. versus New York. But really, it’s so much more.
“If you asked me, ‘What’s the most classic World Series you could imagine?’” said Andrew Friedman, “I think Dodgers-Yankees would be the answer.”
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(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani and Jose Trevino in June: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
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